David Sedgwick

A group of students are soaring after picking up the top three places in a design competition.

The trio from Carville Primary School, in Wallsend, were among 1,700 students around the country who took part in the Design a Done competition, organised by Amazon in partnership with the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

The three – Liam, Alex and Alessia – were the top three winners in the North East regional competition.

Liam was awarded top spot for designing the solar-powered Homeless Helper drone, which would deliver food and drink to those in need.

Second place went to Alex for his Mr Slart drone, which would be used to deliver a wheelchair to his grandma, and third place went to Alessia for her Helper drone.

The successful young engineers were awarded their prizes in a special ceremony during a school assembly.

Winning students took home gift baskets of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) prizes. The first place regional winner also earned a cash donation of £1,000 for his school, to be spent on in-school STEM resources.

One national winner will be selected from the 12 regional finalists and have the opportunity to travel to the Amazon Prime Air Lab in Cambridge where their design will be exhibited for a year.

Jonathan Nicholson, assistant director of communications at the CAA, said: “All the entries were absolutely amazing and it was great to see so many students showing an interest in drones.”

“By the time they are adults, drones could well be playing key roles in everyday life. But for that to happen we need everyone who flies a drone now to do so safely.”

Lauren Kisser, operations director at Amazon Prime Air, said: “I’m delighted that the Design a Drone competition encouraged these students to unleash their creative thinking on how drones can be used to improve society.

“The entries we received were full of innovative and thoughtful ideas that could very well change the world one day.”